In 2002, the state of Gujarat in India erupted in horrific violence that would shape and define Narendra Modi’s political career. The pogrom, which left thousands of Muslims dead and displaced tens of thousands more, demonstrated the ease with which fear and hatred can be weaponised in pursuit of political power. Modi’s right-wing populism, rooted in Hindu fascism, enabled and cemented his rise to national prominence. Today, South Africa risks following a similarly destructive trajectory as political elites increasingly try to incite xenophobia against African and Asian migrants to redirect anger over a devastating economic and social crisis onto vulnerable scapegoats.

The 2008 pogroms in South Africa, when over 60 migrants and people from ethnic minorities were killed and many thousands displaced, marked the first dark moment in the country’s post-apartheid history. Alliances between local politicians and thugs scapegoated migrants for the country’s deep-rooted economic inequalities, even though they were often victims of the same systemic neglect. Now, fifteen years later, the same dynamics persist, but the scale and intensity of xenophobia have evolved, with new flashpoints and actors emerging.

One of the most alarming developments in recent years has been the rise of Operation Dudula, a vigilante movement targeting migrants. On 16 June 2021, a day of deep historical significance as South Africa commemorates the Soweto Uprising of 1976, Dudula held its first march in Soweto. Operation Dudula, like other xenophobic outfits, actively tried to present itself as a continuation of the struggle for national liberation, this time with people like impoverished Zimbabweans working in the informal economy and small-time Pakistani shopkeepers being cast as the enemies of the people.

Dudula, adopting a militaristic posture, went on to organise ‘raids’ on migrant-owned businesses, forcibly evict migrant families from their homes, and patrol communities to identify and expel migrants. In several townships, Dudula’s actions created a climate of fear not only for migrants but also for South African-born residents who refused to participate in these raids.

Despite the group’s openly violent and unlawful actions, the state’s response was tepid. The police allowed them to act with impunity and some political leaders tacitly endorsed Dudula’s activities, viewing the movement as a means to channel public frustration without addressing systemic failures. This lack of accountability emboldened Dudula, but the organisation never achieved any sort of mass support. Although it received huge media coverage, it was never able to evolve beyond being small groups of thugs with a media-savvy privately educated leader.

Political and other elites justify their xenophobia in the name of the poor but, strikingly, the mass-based organisations of the poor and the working class are mostly not xenophobic. During the 2008 pogrom, Abahlali baseMjondolo, the radical movement of the urban poor with over 150,000 paid-up members and many more supporters, bravely contested the xenophobic attacks and has remained resolutely opposed to xenophobia. It includes migrants among its leaders and on the platforms at its big public events and worked with Congolese migrants to found the radical Lumumbist Congolese Solidarity Campaign, with which it has a close relationship.

The trade union movement has a long history of opposing xenophobia and including migrants in leadership positions. This remains true of many unions, including the metalworkers’ union, Numsa, the largest union in Africa. But in 2019, Zwelinzima Vavi, then General Secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), broke from this consensus, tweeting a photograph of Muslim migrant shopkeepers walking to a mosque with the caption: “These are new shop owners going for midday prayers. Too many things going wrong?”

In the national election in May this year, a number of contenders placed xenophobia at the centre of their platforms. Herman Mashaba and Gayton McKenzie, both Trumpian figures, were among the worst, but most voters didn’t buy it. Well less than 40% of eligible voters bothered to participate in the election, and Mashaba’s party won 1.2% of the vote while McKenzie’s party won 2.1%. But despite their failure at the polls, Mashaba and McKenzie both get regular and, in the case of McKenzie, fawning media coverage, creating the impression that migration is a hot-button issue for voters.

In recent days and weeks, xenophobic rhetoric has dangerously escalated, with the media and politicians taking the leading role. Claims that migrant-owned stores are “poisoning children” with expired or tainted goods have circulated widely. One video circulating on WhatsApp goes a step further and claims that Pakistani shopkeepers are poisoning the water supply. McKenzie declared: “We need to close all these shops. We can’t be debating this matter. The shops should be closed and owners arrested to be deported. What more do we want to see, more children dying?”

There is a genuine issue in South Africa with a long list of pesticides that have been banned in most other countries but continue to circulate freely. With the state not providing refuse removal to informal settlements, people often buy dangerous pesticides to deal with rat infestations. There have been occasions where, tragically, children have died. But this is a result of the failure of the state to remove refuse and to regulate dangerous toxins, not a conspiracy by migrant shopkeepers to poison South African children.

In response to the tragic deaths of six children in Naledi, Soweto, due to terbufos poisoning a coalition of civil society organisations and trade unions issued a report highlighting systemic regulatory failures. The coalition, operating under the South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins, emphasized that these fatalities are a direct consequence of inadequate regulation and enforcement concerning hazardous pesticides.

The report focuses particularly on terbufos, an organophosphate pesticide banned in the European Union since 2009 due to its high toxicity but still in use in South Africa. The coalition criticizes the continued manufacture and export of such chemicals from Europe to developing countries, labelling it a “racist double standard in the pesticides trade.”

Despite all this, many politicians and much of the media continue to speak as if migrant shopkeepers are part of a sinister conspiracy to murder South African children. At the same time, another folk devil is being carefully fabricated as the state presents all informal miners working shafts abandoned by mining companies as both “illegal foreigners” and “dangerous criminals.”

Informal miners, known as ‘zama zamas’, are poor men from across Southern Africa, many from South Africa, taking on dangerous and difficult work to survive an economic crisis. Some work under criminal gangs, but many are just ordinary men trying to survive.

In recent days, a crisis has unfolded in Stilfontein, in the North West Province, where zama zama miners have been trapped underground by the police who have blocked supplies of food and water in an attempt to force the miners to surface. Families have gathered at the site, anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.

Instead of treating this as a humanitarian crisis, the state has responded with hostility. Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said: “We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped; criminals are to be prosecuted. We didn’t send them there.” There are real fears that men may die, or may have already died, in the mines.

The active attempts by political elites, in and out of the ANC, to incite xenophobic hatreds and scapegoat migrants cannot be separated from the broader economic and social crises. Official unemployment rates exceed 30%, with youth unemployment surpassing 60%. Hunger is widespread, and 27% of children under five years old are affected by stunting, a condition resulting from chronic undernutrition that impairs growth and development.

The recent termination of the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, coupled with harsh austerity measures in the mid-term budget, has exacerbated the crisis.  At the same time systemic corruption and mismanagement have further eroded public trust. In this climate of desperation, migrants have become convenient scapegoats for the political class.

The 2008 anti-migrant pogrom should serve as a warning for politicians like Ntshavheni, Mashaba, and McKenzie who, with Trumpian recklessness, try to ignite the fires of xenophobia. Modi’s success in building an effective hard right project on the back of a pogrom should serve a warning to all who aspire to a democratic future for South Africa.

South Africa must confront its systemic inequalities head-on and reject the politics of scapegoating. A broad based united left front, rooted in the mass organisations rather than NGOs and tiny sectarian organisations, is urgently needed.

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